Romehttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/14026/all
enFox Is Batty for Gothamhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/fox-batty-gotham-157486
Anthony Crupi<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/gotham.jpeg"> <p>
Fire up the Bat Signal, Chief O&rsquo;Hara, because Fox officially has ordered <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/look-what-broadcast-tv-networks-have-store-2014-15-156185" target="_blank">Gotham</a> to series.</p>
<p>
Based upon characters published by DC Entertainment and produced by Warner Bros. Television, Gotham functions as a <a href="http://www.fox.com/gotham/" target="_blank">serialized origin story</a> of Batman supervillians like&nbsp;Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), and&nbsp;Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova), the feline burglar better known as Catwoman.</p>
<p>
(The draft of the pilot script that began circulating last winter suggests that Batman purists also will have to contend with the comic book&rsquo;s goofiest bad guy. In the draft read by Adweek, The Riddler makes his first appearance in the guise of a coroner affiliated with Gotham&rsquo;s finest.)</p>
<p>
Ben McKenzie (The O.C., Southland) stars as a young Detective James Gordon, and David Mazouz, late of Fox&rsquo;s Touch, plays the 12-year-old boy who eventually will grow into the cowl, Bruce Wayne.</p>
<p>
Lastly, Jada Pinkett Smith will play Fish Mooney, a wholly original character to Gotham that has no precedent in the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-many-dc-comics-shows-are-we-getting-next-couple-years-anyway-156032" target="_blank">DC Comics universe</a>.</p>
<p>
Executive producer Bruno Heller (Rome, The Mentalist) wrote the Gotham pilot, which was directed and executive produced by Danny Cannon (Alcatraz, Nikita).&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<p>
Speaking in January at the TCA Winter Press Tour, Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly characterized Gotham as &ldquo;an operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality to it.&rdquo; He added that&nbsp;Batman is slated to appear at &rdquo;the end of the series.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Fox will present its entire <a href="http://www.adweek.com/upfront" target="_blank">2014-15 prime-time schedule</a> to media buyers and advertisers next Monday afternoon (May 12). Among the other drama prospects that are likely to receive season orders are Red Band Society and Empire.</p>
Television2014-15 UpfrontAlcatrazbatmanBen McKenzieBruno HellerAnthony CrupiDanny CannonDC ComicsDC EntertainmentEmpireFoxGothamJada Pinkett SmithKevin ReillyNetworksRed Band SocietyRomeTCA Winter Press TourThe MentalistWarner Bros. TelevisionMon, 05 May 2014 21:48:45 +0000157486 at http://www.adweek.comNetflix Snaps Up Wachowskis’ Sci-Fi Serieshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/netflix-snaps-wachowskis-sci-fi-series-148180
Sam Thielman<p>
Netflix has completed another high-profile acquisition, ordering 10 episodes of a new scripted series to be directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas) and penned by Babylon 5 creator and screenwrter J. Michael Straczynski.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Set to premiere in 2014, Sense8 is being billed as &ldquo;a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted,&rdquo; which frankly isn&rsquo;t much to go on. Marc Rosen&rsquo;s Georgeville entertainment will produce the show, with an assist from Straczynski&rsquo;s own company, Studio JMS.</p>
<p>
As is the case with David Fincher&rsquo;s commitment to Netflix&rsquo;s House of Cards, the Wachowskis will be venturing into television for the first time with Sense8. And while this appears to be another serious gamble for the streaming service, this does not seem to concern CEO Reed Hastings at all&mdash;the proposed budget for Netflix originals is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201302/netflix-founder-reed-hastings-house-of-cards-arrested-development?currentPage=1" target="_blank">half-a-billion dollars annually</a>&nbsp;(insert Keanu-esque&nbsp;&ldquo;whoa&rdquo; here).</p>
<p>
While the cited $500 million presumably includes the requisite marketing budget, Creative Artists Agency TV packaging and literary agent Peter Micelli recently told a panel at UCLA that &ldquo;House of Cards started at $4.5 million and Fincher took it way above that.&rdquo; So that puts Sense8 firmly in Game of Thrones territory, if not <a href="http://www.today.com/id/9044681/ns/today-entertainment/t/hbos-rome-wasnt-built-day/#.UVMhjlt4ZFY" target="_blank">Rome</a>.</p>
<p>
Money isn&rsquo;t always a guarantee of quality&mdash;looking at you,&nbsp;<a href="http://nbc_supertrain.tripod.com/" target="_blank">Supertrain</a>&mdash;but the marquee value that comes with signing the likes of the Wachowskis and Fincher is inestimable, even if they&rsquo;re all&nbsp;<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/business" target="_blank">notorious</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/movies/moviesspecial/02kehr.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">overspenders</a>. And while Netflix is playing it close to the vest on the ratings front, by at least one measure, it appears that House of Cards has quite a following. A survey by Selectable media found that about one-third of Netflix&rsquo;s viewers had watched at least one episode of Fincher&rsquo;s Beltway drama, which translates to an aggregate audience of around 9 million people.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We&#39;re excited to work with Netflix and Georgeville Television on this project,&rdquo; said Andy and Lana Wachowski, by way of announcing the deal. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve wanted to work with Joe Straczynski for years, chiefly due to the fact his name is harder to pronounce than ours, but also because we share a love of genre and all things nerdy.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The duo added that the germ of the Sense8 idea came to them years ago during a &ldquo;late-night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us.&rdquo;</p>
TechnologyBabylon 5David FincherFight ClubGame of ThronesHboSam ThielmanNetflixReed HastingsRomeSe7enThe MatrixVideoWachowskisWed, 27 Mar 2013 17:31:32 +0000148180 at http://www.adweek.com